talk with the ceos of google and youtube in a special town hall event revolution, google and youtube changing the world. hour with brian williams" a look at one of the biggest challenges inside the white house, protecting president trump from president trump. "the 11th hour with brian williams starts now". >> tonight, president trump flies home. he's back at the white house touting his successful trip to davos but ignoring questions on robert mueller in light of that bombshell story he had ordered hip to be fired. the next big event in the russia investigation. steve bannon reportedly scheduled to be the next big interview for team mueller. and is it getting more difficult for the trump legal team or the trump west wing team to carry out the task of protecting the president from himself? "the 11th hour" on a friday night begins now.

well, good evening once again from our nbc news headquarters. day 372 of the trump administration. president back at the white house tonight after his trip to davos. he had a busier than usual week ahead. it includes formally unveiling his latest immigration proposal delivering the first state of the union address as president and attending a retreat with house and senate republicans. all of it now against this backdrop of the latest big story, the white house has been forced to react to. "the new york times" exclusive last night that the president ordered the firing of robert mueller but for his white house counsel who said if he goes, i go and so it was never carried out. while "the times" broke the story, similar accounts and confirmations followed from nbc news, "the washington post", fox news. today the president had the opportunity to respond to these reports.

>> will you pfeiffer fire robert mueller? >> did you want to fire robert mueller? >> fake news, folks, fake news. "new york times" fake stories. >> did you want to fire robert mueller? >> thank you. >> the president's lawyers are still negotiating the terms of any interview between the president and mueller's team but a new report out "the wall street journal" says "president trump's legal team has been studying a 1990s federal court ruling that could be the basis for delaying, limiting or avoiding an interview with special counsel robert mueller according to people familiar with the matter. in that case, a federal appeals court ruled presidents and closest advisers enjoy protections against having to disclose information about their decision-making process or official actions. the court ruled prosecutors hoping to overcome arguments of executive and presidential privilege must show that such information contains important evidence that isn't available

elsewhere. earlier tonight on this network, harvard law school constitutional law professor lawrence tribe laid out his predictions of what could happen if trump were to refuse an interview. >> i think we are right on the verge of some kind of explosion. when miller says i want to interview you and trump after getting advice from his lawyers might say well, i really don't feel comfortable with it, if that's what he says, he will be ordered to appear. he will be subpoenaed. if he defies that subpoena, he will be defying a court order and that will lead to a constitutional explosion. >> weekly standard editor bill crystal gave his own theory as to why trump's legal team may delay here as much as possible. >> trump is scared of bob mueller. he will not testify to bob mueller and trump wants this investigation to be stopped or slowed down or impeded or made more difficult or discredited as much as possible.

>> there is another high-profile witness slated to speak with the mueller team and that's steve bannon. a source familiar with the discussions is telling nbc news trump's former chief strategists is expected to meet with mueller's team by january 31st, that's wednesday of next week. bannon was quoted criticizing trump and his family as you may have heard in the book it "fire and fury" which led to a very public fauout with the white house. that's left a number of people wondering what exactly bannon will tell the special prosecutor when that interview does take place. a lot to get to. a lot of questions. let's bring in the lead off panel for a friday night. matthew nussbaum, white house reporter for politico, jennifer rogers here with us, former assistant u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york, now executive director for columbia law school center for the advancement of public integrity and we welcome to the broadcast former federal prosecutor cynthia oxney and she happens to be a veteran of this network. good evening to you all.

welcome to you-all. first things first, how important was this story last night about trump's order not carried out to fire robert mueller legally? >> i think it's potentially huge. we know we need action and intent to get the obstruction case. there is lots of evidence implying that there was the intent when comey was fired, but this to me is a little bit of a clearer line between action and intent because you have bob mueller who is the special prosecutor, all he's doing is the russia investigation, right? you don't have other excuses about the hillary investigation and not running the bureau the right way. so if in june, not even a month after mueller takes over so he can't possibly be mishandling anything, trump is ordering someone to fire him. it can only be to stop the investigation. of course, we want to know more about the conversation between mcgahn and trump, the reasons for the order would have been discussed between them and that's the big question here. to me, unlike the comey situation, it really can't be

anything else. so i think there is a pretty clean line of action to intent here and that's why i think it's potentially enormous. >> do you agree with professor tribe and that scenario he laid out if the president tries to resist? >> i think so. we're in uncharted territory here. no one really has refused before, but it's certainly important evidence. it's evidence that they can't get any other way. so i have to think that any court if presented with a president refusing to respond to a subpoena is going to order his appearance. >> great to see you again. you told our producer we should keep our eye on the ball. define that for us. >> i think we're all focused on the obstruction because we're just learning now about the attempt to fire mueller and put together the obstruction. remember, mueller has known about this for weeks. the real question is not obstruction because at this point, it seems clear that there was an attempt.

to obstruct the investigation. but why? let's keep our eye on that. why was trump willing to go by these extreme lengths to destroy and demolish the russia investigation? because there's something he does not want mueller to find out. that's what's really important we need to know and probably don't know and mueller probably does. >> matthew i'll take you back to the beat and repeat for the benefit of all of us and we'll talk about it afterwards the number of denials about attempts to fire mueller. >> does the president commit to not firing robert mueller? >> the president has not even discussed that. the president is not discussing firing bob mueller. >> will he commit not to fire him. >> cooperating with -- he's not even discussed not -- he's not discussed firing bob mueller. >> is he going to rule out once and for all firing robert mueller? >> i'll address the second question first. the president said last week, i believe last week and several

times before there is no intention or plan to make any changes in regards to the special counsel. >> is he setting the stage for firing bob mueller? >> chuck, no, there is no -- >> there is no way? there is no way he's going to fire him. >> there is no conversation about that. >> for the 1,000th time, we have no intentions of firing bob mueller. >> so matthew, as you heard, there was no intention of firing bob mueller. what was the white house saying today because as we've learned from lawyer friends on this panel, this was a constitutional -- consequential story. >> what is most spectacular is the silence saying as kellyanne conway was shown saying there in august, there's been no discussion of firing bob mueller. now we know trump ordered just that back in june. look, we know these aren't the most credible people but for something like this, it really is explosive to go back and see the times they denied this. there has been no official denial from the white house aside from the president calling it fake news. in that "new york times" article, something i thought was

big, there was no don mcgahn in there saying this never happened or declining to comment or anything like that. i think for a white house whose credibility is already in tatters, this is just sort of another hit to that. >> jennifer, i heard a lawyer on television tonight as the game goes on, "the new york times" says there were four sources on this story but i heard a lawyer say this is probably not a lawyer because of professional responsibility. they did not think a leak like this could come from a lawyer. >> well, it certainly wouldn't be a lawyer that had an attorney-client relationship with donald trump. >> good point. >> other than that, i mean, there wouldn't be any professional responsibility for a lawyer not acting in the capacity of a lawyer to, you know, keep that communication confidential. so i don't know why it wouldn't be someone who by profession is a lawyer. >> cynthia, a dual question for you.

number one, not brought up a lot, what about mike pence? and number two, if trump woke up tomorrow morning wanting above all to fire bob mueller, doesn't it at this point have to be for cause? >> well, what about mike pence, number one. my guess is he will be interviewed before the president is interviewed and that will be a tipoff for us that the presidential interview is either coming or is coming to a head very soon. that would be my gut about pence. i don't -- i don't see how he fires -- i don't see how he could possibly fire mueller at this point. even the most weak needed of the republican leadership i think would balk at that. maybe i'm hopeful they will stand up for the rule of law. yes, it would have to be for cause and first you would have to fire rosenstein. there would be quite a series of events that would have to happen

and it seems impossible to me. >> jennifer, if you're team mueller, what does it remind us? what is it you want to ask steve bannon? >> they want to ask steve bannon a lot of things. he was right there in the president's ear according to michael wolff's book you have these contrary forces working in the white house but bannon was a very powerful person therein talking to him and kind of guiding him. so you just want to talk to him about a variety of things but certainly the comey firing. i do think regardless of the fact that of course, ultimately, mueller wants to get behind the purpose of these firings and see what the russia collusion case is about, he's honing in on obstruction because it's a potentially clean, easier case to make and i think they want to have that one in the bag just in case he's fired or in case something happens. i think they will try to wrap it up first. they will talk to him about firing comey and certainly be talking to him about these other conversations around michael flynn that will be an important

topic of conversation for bannon. while they talk about the russian stuff to some extent, they will focus on the more obstruction related things. >> matthew, is it the prevailing view since cobb and dowd arrived, it's a little bit tighter, there's a little bit more control, maybe not over all of the president's utterances? >> that's right. there has definitely been a lot less in the way of witch hunt tweets and accusations against mueller. we've seen less inside the white house of trying to dig up things about mueller's prosecutors and left that to sean hannity and his friends. donald trump is not someone whose known for his patience. so you had ty cobb saying in august, this would be over by thanksgiving. then he said it would be over by new year's. now he's saying over the next few weeks. the president hears this and will see this investigation is is not wrapping up and how long he can let that go on and follow the ty cobb strategy remains to be seen, especially because we know his instinct is not to sit back and let this continue.

his instinct is to fight it. >> let's inject fatigue, international travel and twitter. if we have the president's twitter post tonight, the president on his twitter account liked by indication the "wall street journal" story about his friend, steve wynn, the head of fund-raising for the republican party, steve wynn of las vegas, steve wynn now the target of these sexual harassment allegations. story got powerful play today and widely distributed, it was just weird to see a like on behalf of the president of the united states. again, though, not known for restraint in this venue. >> right. with him and his phone after a long foreign trip, this is when he tends to get in trouble. these flights have not always been friendly to him. we remember on one of those they crafted the statement about don junior meeting with the russians to talk about adoptions. it's no surprise to see him

getting a little bit loose after a big trip. >> his own doctor injected the ambien factor as many travelers rely on it for overseas travel. jennifer, knowing what we know that the negotiation is going on with the president's team and mueller's team, i ask you this every time you come on, where do you think we are in the scope of this investigation? >> well, i mean, i think we are getting to the end. they are starting to get closer and closer to the president. bannon is close to the president. they are getting to the more important people. there is still a number of people to go. it will be awhile. i don't suspect that the president and his team will do too much to try to delay things. the article about the 1990s case and all of that because ultimately, it's not going to stop it. i do think that just dragging this out they realize it's not the best strategy for them. i think we will get to the president's testimony. i think it will be under oath and i think it will happen

sometime this year but i think we might still be a few months away. >> cynthia, you get the last word. what form do you think it will be? video? do you think it will be in person and what do you make of the calendar and how far along they are? >> i think mueller is a man of rules and the department of justice rules are very clear that you don't want to do anything that would affect an election. i think he will try as much as possible to stay away from the november elections. that to me is some -- going to be some kind of guide. if at all possible, he will want to wrap this up early summer so that he can be as far as possible away from november. you know, i'm not sure i agree in the end trump is interviewed. i think he may -- all his friends are telling him not to do the interview. he thinks he can do anything with impunity and take five. there is not a lawyer in america

who obviously thinks he should do the interview. i wouldn't be surprised if there is not a lot of bluster and in the end he doesn't do it. >> what an interesting point to depart from this discussion with our thanks to matthew, jennifer rodgers and to cynthia oxney, we appreciate all three of you starting off our conversation on a friday night at the end of a long week. as we approach the first break, the herculean task faced by don mcgahn and others of protecting the president from the president especially this president. and donald trump's fake news defense employed yet again today and yet another immigration deal appearing increasingly out of reach tonight on the hill. all of it when we continue.

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in plain english, this "new york times" exclusive from last night continues to dominate the news and our conversation tonight. and we now know when president trump decided to fire special counsel mueller, it was white house counsel don mcgahn who ultimately stopped him as "the times" first reported after receiving the president's order, repeating order to fire mr. mueller the white house counsel donald mcgahn refused to ask the justice department to dismiss the special counsel saying he would quit instead. it's not the first time the people around this president have stepped in to stop something that could cause great damage to him or the presidency, but while the president's staff tries to control the message, president trump made it quite clear he sees himself as his own spokesman. >> i presented to the president

my concerns and those of deputy attorney general rod rosenstein about the ongoing leadership issues at the fbi as stated in my letter recommending the removal of mr. comey. >> what i did is i was going to fire comey, my decision. >> you made the decision before they came in the room. >> i was going to fire comey. >> he's very definitely changed his attitudes towards the daca issue and even the wall once we briefed him when i was at dhs. >> what we need is the wall is and we also want to solve a tremendous problem on the southern border which is crime. we need a wall. >> the habit of the president raises questions about his relationship with his staff, his legal team at a sensitive time as he prepares to answer the special counsel's questions.

brian bennett from the los angeles times and sa heal ca poorks national political reporter for bloomberg. welcome to you all. amber, what is the concern level? i'm guess ugh get asked this a lot, especially among republicans whose names have to be on ballots in a few months. >> yeah, you're saying what is the concern level, which is the chaos in the white house right now? >> yeah. >> it is an 11 out of 10. i think that day to day we saw with a couple weeks ago in immigration, policy making is a total mess with this president. they don't know where he is on negotiating or what he wants. in addition, you have a president who obviously has for the past year an uncanny ability to create drama including massive legal drama like this story right when congress doesn't want to talk about it.

they were hoping this week we were talking about trump in davos and talking about how good the economy is doing and the tax bill. another incident i remember last year is right as the house republicans passed a bill that would allow trump to crack down on sanctuary cities, he tweeted about an msnbc morning joe host and accusing her of getting her face redone or something. it's like that day after day after day after day that republicans are banging their heads against the wall at this president because they don't know what's going to come out of him in his twitter feed. >> david gergen said he gave a half decent speech to a half decent reception, but of course, everything was against this backdrop with the conversation. knowing what we know about chris ray and don mcgahn, talk a little bit about the consequences of serving this president.

i guess it's not for the faint of heart. >> no, it's not. a number of aides who obviously have tried to bring order to the white house like john kelly have struggled in the past few weeks to keep the reins on the white house and the decision making going on there. i was in john kelly's office on wednesday night when all of a sudden, the door bursts open and in comes donald trump and we start asking questions and he blows the lid on a planned four-day rollout of the immigration plan, tells all the reporters that and i'm standing next to john kelly and i can tell by his body language that he, you know, realizes he's going to have to go back to the drawing board and come up with a plan to clean up what the president just did. also, i heard john kelly when we asked president trump about mueller and whether he would be willing to testify and president trump said that he would love to, i heard a sigh from mueller,

-- or from john kelly standing next to me. he was really trying to keep a straight face and not show any emotion. but this happens time and time again where kelly has been brought in. he really tries to organize the way that the president gets information and come up with a systematic way for him to make decisions but the president undermines that day after day after day. >> sahil, did you find it curious or notable that john kelly, chief of staff to the president, stayed behind on this trip? >> well, there is certainly a resistance among the president to being managed. i'm not sure that necessarily had to do with this. there were some indications he might not have gone either way. the president's resistance to being managed overshadows any imperatives of his that messes up policy plans, messes up negotiations with the hill. about the immigration rollout. >> the rollout plan for monday. he clearly had come from a briefing on it and spewed what he learned. >> exactly. john kelly who has some inherent

tension with the president as someone that lives and breathes structure as a retired marine general and the president is a spontaneous free-wheeling individual. one and dote from the campaign trail i can share speaks to this a little bit. there was one staffer for then candidate trump who obviously would write and trump did not want to use that material when he was on staff. when this staffer left, trump started to use the items more often in the speeches and statements. it reflects that he doesn't like it when other people steal his thunder and take credit. one of the differences between steve bannon and steve miller for instance of the same mind set on the issue of immigration, bannon went off the reservation and started taking credit for things. any time he goes on air, it's about how wonderful the president is and how much of a genius he is. they read the prime directive well. >> our guests agreed to stick around. we'll sneak a break in. no one will notice.

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what if his first i can sting is to fall back on past practice and say never considered it, never thought about it, fake news? >> he's been saying that. i think this report makes it very clear that, you know, this is just another example of a president indifferent to the truth. he looks at reporters with a straight face and says things that we now know were flat out false. >> were you going to fire robert mueller? >> fake news. >> what's your message today. >> typical "new york times" fake stories. >> that was the discussion we had in this room last night followed by the president's response this morning. it has become a go-to answer and a key part of a larger effort to diminish and erode the institution of a free press. at the forum he attended in davos this morning, the president went after the press in front of a crowd that included an international press corps and there were audible booze in the room. >> as a businessman, i was always treated really well by the press. the numbers speak.

things happen. always had a really good press and not until i became a politician that i realized how nasty, how mean, how vicious and how fake the press can be. as the cameras start going off in the back. >> boo. >> more on that in a bit. the president has used the phrase "fake news" over 150 times on his twitter feed alone. this started back in 2015 as the phrase dishonest media. it has shall we say evolved from there. >> the dishonest media, they are dishonest. you won't believe how dishonest. they are the most dishonest people. i mean a big percentage of them. >> they were saying he won't be able to crack 50. despite all their lies, misrepresentations and false stories, they could not defeat us in the primaries and they

could not defeat us in the general election. >> the fake media tried to stop us from going to the white house but i'm president and they are not. >> you can talk all you want about russia which is a fake news fabricated deal to try and make up for the loss of the democrats and press plays right into it. the leaks are absolutely real. the news is fake. >> fake news. this is going to be great for people. >> they have been fake news for a long time. >> general flynn is a wonderful man, i think he's been treated very, very unfairly by the media, as i call it, the fake media. >> i'm very honored by his comments. it was fake news, it was a totally phony story. >> very good relationship. fake news. >> i don't know what newspaper you're reading but i guess that would be another example of as you say fake news. >> make sure you look up @real dnld trump. it's our only way around the media. fake media.

>> remaining with us for this conversation, amber phillips, brian bennett, sahil kapur. brian, it didn't seem like the president was expecting to be booed from that audience in davos. that line usually goes over well. he's usually used to facing a friendly crowd. >> he just delivered a speech about putting america first where he stayed on script, delivered it in measured tones, hadn't been booed and sits down and has q and a and immediately launches into a political attack on hillary clinton saying that the stock market would have gone down 50% if she were elected and then he launches attacks on the media saying now he found out they're vicious and fake and he was booed. and i mean, it's -- he reversed back into old habits quite quickly after delivering what was a pretty controlled speech. >> amber, when we talk about a chilling effect, when we talk about a corrosive effect of this phrase alone, talk about what

that means. >> yeah, it's a phrase that has consequences. i'm going to quote senator jeff flake who gave an entire speech on the senate floor about this the other week. a republican criticizing his party's own president and noted that there were dictators as far as burma, syria, singapore, venezuela, and authoritarian leaders who obviously have used this phrase, fake news to, brush off very serious criticism about their humanitarian policies in addition to that, earlier this week, there was reported that a man had called up cnn and said, i'm going to gun all you guys down. this is fake news and used that phrase repeatedly. the parallels have to be drawn to one of donald trump's first press conferences in january of 2017. he looked right at a cnn reporter and said you are fake news. this is corrosive and it's jumping outside his twitter feed

in a very real way especially recently. >> sahil, as you know it's not a long walk between fake news to the deep state and we have seen the deep state morph into conspiracies, especially just this week among our leagues in the media business. there are two dimensions i look at the president's attacks on the media. one is the fact it's impulse, he is lashing out at people he feels affronted by. he's always done this throughout his career and it's managed to be him at least reasonably well. the other dimension is it serves to delegitimize this russia investigation in the minds of the voters who obviously support him. he polls at about 80% among the republican base. a poll last month showed as many as 80% of republican voters believe the mueller investigation into russia tampering into the election is politically motivated to hurt president trump.

this is hugely important because the verdict of what happens in this investigation may not be in a court of law. it may be in a court of public opinion and republican leaders in congress are going to be scared of taking any action against president trump if they believe their voters will retaliate against them for it. i don't think that's necessarily motivating the president. the last thing i would point out is president trump has always as a businessman in new york, he's been the king of the new york tabloids. he knew how to get the stories he wanted most of his life was an open book, he knew how to manipulate it. then he moved to d.c. and dealt with a different crop of reporters who obviously had been covering these institutions for decades even. i don't think he was that good at manipulating the press corps. part is he's lashing out at that. >> terrific conversation and thank you for participating. amber phillips, brian bennett, sahil kapur. we appreciates it. coming up for us, why the fate of the d.r.e.a.m.ers is being caught up in a larger showdown again over immigration. that's when we continue.

i want to solve the daca problem. i will consider that a great achievement to solve the daca program. it's been out there for a long time. these are good people. these are people that should be able to stay in this country. >> speaking to our friend joe kernen of cnbc in davos, switzerland, the president repeated his desire to find a solution to ada ca recipients. remember his promise, this will be a bill of love. for nearly 2 million undocumented immigrants an exchange for major cuts in family-based migration, what the president is fond of calling by the pejorative chain migration, the end of the diversity visa lottery and $25 billion with a "b" dollars for a border wall. today chuck super rejected the president's proposal writing on

twitter "this plan flies in the face of what most americans believe." in turn on board air force one, trump fired back to schumer on twitter write "daca has been made increasingly difficult by the fact that here we go, crying chuck schumer took such a beating over the shutdown that he is unable to act on immigration." let's talk about it. alan gomez, u.s. immigration reporter and christina manager of politics at the l.a. times. are you telling me that this is going to become mashed potatoes again and we're in for another one of these showdowns over immigration while d.r.e.a.m.ers kind of wait in the balance? >> if it even gets that far. mashed potatoes needs to be more in the political lex con. i like that. there is an unfortunate reality, for people living in limbo. even if something were to be able to pass the senate because

comprehensive immigration refor has passed the senate before under different parties and different leaderships with republican support. in the house, republicans do not have a unified voice on this. if they wanted to pass something, republicans need to work with democrats, democrats feel like they can't trust president trump. last night there was a debate here for the gubernatorial candidates running for governor in california. and asked about this deal, should democrats accept this and deal with trump, the answer was absolutely not. and that is, democrats talking to the most democratic liberal base in los angeles and they will not stand for a deal like this. especially when you see democrats believe they have a chance at winning back control of the house this fall in the midterms, they are not going to cooperate with the president and give away something they say they feel very strongly about, no border wall and don't mess with these other families. the whole point for them is that you're breaking apart families

they want to help this one group of people. they don't want to hurt another group of families to be able to do that. that's what the democrats are saying. >> let me employ an lbj term. what about the good government types? the good government types that want to see immigration reform. >> there is a lot of them there. we're seeing a lot of the same voices on the republican side that were there during the 2013 immigration debate when they passed the bill through the senate. lindsey graham, jeff flake had been advocating for this. one of the remarkable things that the president did when he released this immigration framework was unify both sides in opposition of this deal. you mentioned check schumer, there's been a blowback from the democrats but it's been pretty unanimous from the republican side opposing this because of how many d.r.e.a.m.ers it protects. breitbart labeled him amnesty don. the center for immigration

studies which is a conservative group that wants to reduce legal and illegal immigration dubbed it the art of the shoek and understand, this is from a group that was at firstology provide citizenship to about 800,000 d.r.e.a.m.ers. that was the population covered by president obama's program but once it ballooned up to 1.8 million, all of a sudden, all these groups started running away from it saying this is getting out of control, this is too much for us to handle. >> i want to -- we've asked our guests to stuck around. we'll take a quick break and when we come back, president trump criticized by a fellow republican and one-time rival who at the same time had a warning for the wider gop. our discussion continues right after this.

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and on almost every one of those calls pg&e is responding to that call as well. and so when we show up to a fire and pg&e shows up with us it makes a tremendous team during a moment of crisis. i rely on them, the firefighters in this department rely on them, and so we have to practice safety everyday. utilizing pg&e's talent and expertise in that area trains our firefighters on the gas or electric aspect of a fire and when we have an emergency situation we are going to be much more skilled and prepared to mitigate that emergency for all concerned. the things we do every single day that puts ourselves in harm's way, and to have a partner that is so skilled at what they do is indispensable, and i couldn't ask for a better partner. donald, you know, is great at the one-liners but he's a chaos candidate. he would be a chaos president. he would not be the commander in chief we need to keep our

country safe. >> two things here, first of all, doesn't that feel like it was about ten years ago and second, remember how they got along? former florida governor jeb bush repeatedly warned of the down falls of a trump presidency whether he he was running for the gop nomination. in return, he earns the nickname low energy and a life in political retirement at home in florida. in a new interview with allen gomez of "usa today", jeb bush again sounding alarm bells about now president trump. he says republicans are in for a beating in the mid teres if congressional races focus on the president's character telling the paper, quote, if the election is nationalized and it's not about the economy, then we'll lose." he also criticized trump more directly saying quote, the character of the guy and the turnover and fighting and just the constant chaos around his

presidency is self-inflicted, has made it hard for him. i want the president to succeed. i don't think he will succeed if he continues on this path. the aforementioned allan gomez back with us as is christine. alan, i have to ask you, why can did he choose other than the fact that you called him up to comment now and is he content with his life these days? >> i mean, he absolutely says he is. i've been trying to get him to sit down with me for several months now. he finally agreed to do so yesterday. sorry, days are very long these days. and he just -- we were just talking about the state of the party, the state of the one-year anniversary of president trump being inaugurated. and he was more focused on the future looking at midterms and worrying about what this trump effect will be. and saying that if candidates are able to focus on the economy, on things going on in their district, that they should

fare pretty well because of how well the economy is doing right now but how hard the president is making that if he continues to generate these kind of headlines. and i'll tell you, it was interesting. i interviewed hip during the morning. i get back to my office and writing up my notes, transcribing the interview and at that part where he is talking about he needs to stop with all the bad headlines. that's when "the new york times" story breaks. i'm just sitting there thinking, i'm sure jeb is a little bit more upset than he was this morning. >> that's why every day feels like a year. christina, you could make an argument that jeb bush feels much more of a sense of stewardship over his party than the president-elected under the banner of the republican party in office. talk about the concern level you are sensing perhaps just among california republicans but among all those republicans who are going to be on a ballot in 2018

who may not be -- who may be more encumbered against free speech than jeb bush to say how they're feeling. >> we just did the usc/los angeles times poll that came out last fright. republicans versus democrats, the democrats have an 11-point advantage and there's one reason and his name is president trump. so the party is definitely worried about this. jeb bush was all over the place. you heard that chaos candidate moment came. he had the party rooting for him privately and was changing his tune on immigration, talking about anchor babies, not always taking it to trump which clearly he pelt and he's not the same kind of republican that he president trump is. there's a moment where republican leadership could have stopped his candidacy had they said some of the things they say now that some of them like

senator flake has been empowered since he's not running for re-election back in 2015, donald trump would not have won all those primaries and caucuses. jeb bush could be president today for that. it's something to keep in mind that the party it's easier for them to look backward and say we warned about this, this is what we were afraid of. at the same time, there was a moment where it could have been a moment of leadership for some of these republicans to say we'd rather have a president clinton than president trump. >> i think that was very fair. alan, do you get any intention on his part that he's going to run for anything again? >> he left that little door open when i asked him that question. he says he's very happy. he's celebrating his, what is it, 43rd wedding anniversary next month. he's got four grandchildren. he plays a lot of golf down here. he's doing a lot of work on an education foundation he's

working on. he runs investment firms. he says he's happy. he says "life is good," but he left the door open. he didn't unequivocally say he's not going to run. >> two terrific guests on a friday night. my thanks to you both. really appreciate it. coming up after our last break, the curious case of melania trump. one-half of the first couple when we continue.

>> few items before we let you go on a friday night. the advance guidance from the democrats on their response to the state of the union was that it was going to be delivered by a household name, which in fairness turned out to be half right when we learned 37-year-old congressman joe kennedy iii had been given the nod, the great nephew of jfk, and ted kennedy, grand of rfk and ethyl kennedy, son of joe junior the former congressman. joe kennedy ii can you tell he's irish has barney frank's old seat in congress. his selection is seen as an attempt by the demes to return to their so-called core brand. the state of the trump marriage has been in the news this week after their 13th wedding anniversary passed without public mention. after melania trump canceled her trip to davos with her husband and showed up instead alone at

the holocaust museum in washington. then flew unannounced to the couple's home at mar-a-lago in florida. the story that received wide circulation today broke on the daily mail website saying since the stormy daniels story broke, mrs. trump has been spending nights at a hotel in washington and not in the white house. the white house issued a denial to nbc news when asked about the story. notably, the president flew into washington from davos tonight with no an apparent plans to spend this january weekend in florida. and the never trump republican ohio governor john kasich is going to new hampshire and this is right about the time when we notice when anyone in politics has travel plans to new hampshire. he's been a rumored primary challenger to trump. you may recall he tried an failed to beat him last time around. and to be fair, his new hampshire trip is not planned to involve any diners or dairy farms, rather a fireside

discussion of politics on a college campus. and that's going to wrap it up for our broadcast on a friday night and after this long week, thank you so much for being here with us. have a great weekend and good night from nbc news headquarters here in new york. >> tonight on all in. >> mr. president, did you seek to fire robert mueller. >> fake news, folks. >> the plot to fire mueller. >> typical "new york times" fake stories. >> tonight new concerns the threat to the special counsel hasn't passed. and yet, one republican is backing off his plan to protect robert mueller and what all this means for the russia investigation. >> i haven't given it any thought. >> then. >> yeah, maybe donald trump wanted to fire the special counsel for conflict. does he not have the right to raise those questions. >> can trump tv sustain the president through his latest crisis. >> the president says it's fake news. what do you think? do you even care? >> the finance chief for the republican party faces new allegations of sexual